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Andy's Workshop

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Bartering In A Parallel Universe

[Please note: this is an Andy's Imagination post, purely my own thoughts and will likely not appear in game]

It's been a couple months since my imagination got an airing... well, for gaming things anyway, but that's what happens when you find Movies4Men on your satellite TV... but that's off track, my gaming imagination hasn't had much of a run out but Zynga have done their best to change that by giving us something that automatically made my head go.

They gave us the Barter Depot. A building who's name is, at best, misleading and at worst an attempt to pretend we're not crafting, we're bartering. (No, we're crafting...)

I'm fairly sure most people will have been like me, when I saw the email title I got excited thinking of the possibilities, then I opened it and read what it was all about... and realised this wasn't bartering.

So... it got me thinking. If I had designed it, what would it have been? Thus here we are, the first Andy's Imagination post based on something already in game.

I think the first thing we can all stand up and agree here is, we're not bartering. We're crafting stuff. So how do we MAKE it bartering?

Simple, we do what this game was designed to do, we get social. We don't barter with some faceless entity, we barter by trading with our NEIGHBOURS.

Everyone remember this screen where we see wishlists? (A feature no-one gets around to using any more because nothing we need is giftable)

Well, we adapt it and move it into the game.

Say for example my Great Aunt Bathsheba wants a Spanish Coin, the rare item from the Debris Collection. She's given a few choices over what she can Barter for it (to stop one sided barter based cheating), say another rare collection item like a Bear Claw, 10 Ribbons or 10 Dinners (just as an example).

Well, Great Aunt Bathsheba has finished all the School Lessons so decides to trade away 10 Ribbons for the coin and, depending on what could be coded, either sends her Barter out to be viewed in her neighbours Barter Depots or it appears when neighbours visit her.

Then, when I, being the loving and doting great nephew that I am, either check my Barter Depot or visits her homestead I see this:

Ten Ribbons for one Spanish Coin... OK, I think, I'm a bit of a thicko and still have school lessons to go, but I do have a bundle of Spanish Coins, so I accept the Barter and click the button. I get credited 10 ribbons from Great Aunt Bathsheba's inventory, she gets credited a Spanish Coin from mine.

If you wanted to be REALLY cool you could set it that when Great Aunt Bathsheba logs in there's an arrow over her Barter Depot, and when she clicks that a Train rolls into the station and "delivers" her goods! But that might be asking a little much...

Obviously there would have to be some things set as limits.

Firstly what you can barter needs to have set rates so folks don't cheat the game trading 100 Spanish coins for a manure collection...

Secondly there would need to be a limit on the amount you could do, I reckon setting 3-5 Barters at a time would be pretty fair.

Finally it would have to only be collectible ONCE, so that Great Aunt Bathsheba doesn't end up losing 100 ribbons for 10 Spanish coins.

All of that I think is fair and possibly codeable... we could have brags to pop on our wall to say we've Bartered, we could have brags to pop on our wall to say we'd put up a barter, we could have badges for "Barter so and so amount of times" that could be posted on the wall, Zynga would get their marketing posts...

So there we go. That is how I would have designed a Barter building, not as another Crafting Workshop with a different name, but a real chance to go back to the Frontier and Barter with our neighbours.

YES, WHAT A GREAT WAY THAT WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO DO AWAY WITH ALL THAT EXTRA INVENTORY AS WELL, ALWAYS WONDERED WHY THAT WAS NEVER MADE TO GIFT? WE REALLY NEED U TO BE THE ONE TELLING THEM HOW TO CREATE THE GAME ANDY!!! GUESS THEY REALLY SHOULD PLAY THE GAME TO KNOW WHAT WE NEED!!! MIGHT JUST HELP...lol

I have always thought and mentioned last year to them that we should barter lets say a spanish coin for some items needed in a mission.... this would help the lower people catch up.... I have so many items they need in my inventory and can not give it to them to help them catch up.... because this is a game that you just can't get caught up on any more....the higher levels are clicking on so many items that they need we just do not have the clicks to spare for the others.....just a thought on how to help the lower level people get caught up.....and yes Andy it is a new word for crafting...

Boy, they missed the boat when they didn't hire you at Zynga. Your ideas make so much more sense than some of the stuff they come up with. And yes, I also am sick of all that stuff in my inventory that I can't do anything with and can't get rid of!

Great idea, you should be working at Zynga... actually running it! LOL. The Barter Depot is a disappointment for sure, definitely thought it was going to be more like your idea... probably everyone's thought when they first saw it...

I'd been thinking along the same lines - I dream Frontierville too LOL :-/ However I'd gone a little further and was extending it to other items in the inventory. So if I'm a very active wall post clicker and have an extra items for a Halloween mission, then i could trade it, or rather barter with another player who wanted them for something I wanted. Obviously the cheating you mention is a problem and I tend to forget about such things as I enjoy the game as it and don't see that cheating benefits you in the end. The Trading Post was another great start, but that offers you nothing really - and last time I went trading mad I got rid of a load of things I then needed for a new mission - oh well.This game was/is good, but it could be GREAT!

Andy you are amazing, everything (when you write it)makes sense and so logical. I wish they would put you on the payroll. Your ideas are great. I do wonder if the ones who design the games actually PLAY the games....I think not. That is why you have great ideas (pretty smart too:)) is that you play the games. Thanks for giving us a nice distraction this morning reading your post:)

What a GREAT idea...To bad we won't even see it come to pass..Zynga is so sucking wind in so so many area's...You can not have over 500 items in your inventory but there are about that many items that you can not get rid of because like someone was saying earlier you can't gift them to other people that could really use them to help in their missions...This is game is getting outta control...We need someone like you Andy to help the game become fun again...

hey Andy tell you what you get your little butt busy and create a game like frontierville and Post your link to the game on This web sight and I will be one of the first players to start playing the game and I will send an Invite to everyone on my friends list and I will also find more along the way all your Ideas rock